Thursday, February 21, 2013

It has been quiet on the blog for a good reason: I was in Los Angeles!

I went to visit one of my besties*, Jan. This is my third visit to see her in California and my second to LA. (We met in San Francisco one of those times.)

Work is madness, of course, so I haven't had time to download my pictures and compose my thoughts. But since one of the first things people usually ask is, "Did you see anyone famous?," I thought I'd start with that.

Celebrity .5
When I was at the studio lot where Jan works, in line at Starbucks, this tall, blonde, attractive man got in line. He was wearing a hoodie and sunglasses, inside, in the 80 degree weather. He also had an Australian accent and a wedding ring. So I decided he was one of the Hemsworth brothers. Jan doubts it because she says no one that famous is ever at their lot, but she agrees it might have been someone.

Celebrity 1
We drove up to the lovely town of Santa Barbara on Monday. While we were vintage shopping at this great store, I looked up and saw a beautiful blonde girl. I looked closer and saw that she is an actress on "Pretty Little Liars." I think you all now how much I love this crazy show. She was with who I presume to be her boyfriend and parents, and one of them said her name, so it was confirmed. I didn't say anything to her but I think the parents and BF heard me freak out at one point. Which is embarrassing, but it could have been way worse. Like read my open letter to her worse.

Celebrity 2
I was at LAX for my flight out bright and early on Tuesday morning. I was on the sidewalk at the terminal, walking to my entrance, when I saw a very energetic man get out of a towncar. It was Richard Simmons in a Carolina blue sweatsuit. He was acting entirely too peppy for 6:30 in the morning and looking almost freakishly good for his age.

And those are my 2.5 celebrity sightings for this trip. More from the Left Coast...eventually.

*I'm not usually a fan of abbreviating words like a teenager, but after they used the word on Big Bang Theory, Jan started using it for us and now I love it.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Nordstrom has very pretty dresses. Friday night was our first attempt at finding bridesmaid dresses for B's wedding. Since we'll be wearing black, we're trying out a few national chains in addition to the standard wedding sources. We haven't found "the one" yet, but it was fun to try pretty dresses on.

Never let your freakishly strong friend handle the wine stopper.I have the cutest/tackiest wine stopper with a woman's legs coming out of the stopper. Brandie, who you'll recall is an arm wrestling beast, was trying to get it out and ripped her poor legs right off!

Playing Wii games with friends is a good antidote to bad basketball.This was our second Wii Game Night and it was another success. I finally got a second remote and we played Wii Sports. And laughed a lot.

We're a little too good at punching.The boxing game is awesome for pent up aggression. Which we had a lot of apparently.

Tennis is really really hard.For me. B and K did great. We may have to credit B's commitment to the game, as she's seen here pretending to bounce the tennis ball, just like the pros.

Rameses makes a good bowling partner.At least according to Brandie.

Vindication can be found in Wii bowling. For years, my family's made fun of the way I leap a little when I Wii bowl. My friends were making fun of me too, until I had 2 strikes and about 6 spares, all because of the leap. How do I know it was the leap? Because as soon as K and B tried the leap, they too, scored higher. It's all in the leap, people!

I can quote the vast majority of "Clueless." And not just sporadically.

Justin Bieber needs to stay away from my "Saturday Night Live."I've seen every episode of SNL since 1997. Even the ones where Eminem was the musical guest. So I feel confident in saying that Bieber seriously needs to leave my show alone.

Every Sunday should start with "Sabrina" on the big screen. My friend Sasha alerted me to the fact that a D.C. theatre was showing Audrey's "Sabrina." I, of course, leapt at the chance to see it and to introduce Sasha to another Audrey film—it's only her second one! (Her first being BAT outside a few summers ago.)

I could listen to "The Weight" on repeat forever. I found myself really enjoying the Grammy's this year, no part more so than the collaborative tribute to The Band's "The Weight." I seriously love that song

Monday, February 11, 2013

I was in a seriously crummy mood for no discernible reason on Thursday. As in, I wanted to murder everyone. And not for very good reasons so it wouldn't have even been justifiable homicide.

I knew I needed to change my attitude so about halfway through the day I stopped working for a about a half hour and tried to just be happy. I wrote personal emails, chatted with a few friends, and read some blogs. I focused on things that make me happy and forgot about all the other crap for a little while.

Part of this happy-making was deciding on a craft to do when I got home as the promise and potential of a creative endeavor always makes me smile. And it did. So I printed off a words to use as a template, picked up some poster board on the way home, set up a light table using my dining room table, gathered some markers, and got to work.

As you can imagine, no, I regret nothing about this mood-enhancing endeavor. (Except for maybe the distracting reflection of moi. And also maybe the too much white space between lines.)

Oh, except, I may regret putting nien instead of rien. Brandie pointed out this weekend that she thought "nein" was German, and after I thought about it, I realized how similar my r's and n's look when I write them. So I consulted the original source and, yep, it should be rien.

So after testing some white paints and settling on a white nail polish, here it is. No, I don't regret anything.

Thursday, February 07, 2013

I really do love my birthday. So much so that I celebrate my entire birthday month, where I do little things for myself throughout the month just because.

However, I've had a problem for awhile of "making" non-family members celebrate with me. As in, I felt like if I invited people to hang out or do something, it would be like forcing them to celebrate me. I have absolutely no reason for thinking this, no friend who has ever cursed me for making him or her drink and eat cake.

So this year I sucked it up and invited a bunch of DC friends to have dessert and drinks at a small restaurant in my neighborhood for my "29 for the first time" birthday thing. And friends came -- a lot, like, I was a little worried why they didn't have better things to do -- and we all had fun. I was a bit nervous combining so many of my worlds -- best friends, book club friends, and work friends -- but it worked out.

The restaurant was very accommodating and we had the bar to ourselves. (The most people at any point in the restaurant aside from us was 4). They put the Packers v. Vikings playoff game on the TVs for my friends. They had "super sized" wine servings. (Which I would come to regret hours later.) And at one point they even asked me what music I wanted to hear. (The answer? Rhianna, of course, as my friend Shana had just gifted me concert tickets for her in the spring!)

I put my friend Becky on picture duty and she did a wonderful job. I feel weird posting pictures of those who don't read the blog, so I'll cram those together in a collage.

At some point, after watching the game, two of the guys decided to have a footrace in front of the restaurant. It was amazing and also a little sad.

When I went to order dessert and asked for chocolate cake, of course, I was told they were out of chocolate. Yes, out of chocolate! I ordered other things instead -- no idea what -- and then Shana had them bring out a tart with a candle. It wasn't chocolate, but it was sweet.

If you'll indulge my vanity for a second: my outfit. I never need an excuse for a new outfit, but I managed to put the night's ensemble together with a dress and accessories I already had, with the exception of the newly purchased back seam tights. The inspiration was this lovely lady in a photo posted on Pinterest.

Vanity over, now to a little mushiness.

It was really was exactly what I wanted and I'm just beyond grateful for the wonderful friends that I have here. So grateful just thinking about them all over again that I may cry so I'm just going to stop.

Wednesday, February 06, 2013

This year I turned 29. I'm still not sure how I feel about that so I'll just move on.

Both the parents had to work the first half of the day so I stayed in my pajamas on the couch, watching Doctor Who, and occasionally packing. It was perfection. I opened my presents and then we made our way to Raleigh to have dinner with the sister and fam.

We ate at Raleigh Times, which is a restaurant housed in the former home of a newspaper. I had a comically large pulled pork enchilada, which was only ok. Joey always orders a huge burrito at one of the Mexican restaurants we go to, so I took this picture and sent it to him. (I apologize in advance for all the pictures of me in this post. But, it was my birthday, so that's ok, right?)

They didn't really have a dessert menu, but they did have some chocolate cake that was apparently homemade every day by a little old lady. (It was also only ok.) They also didn't have any birthday candles so the waitress found a bigger version of the candles on the table. (Which you can't see in this picture.)

I didn't take many pictures that night but here is one of the group. (Minus Joey and Michelle, who couldn't make it.)

After dinner we went to Melissa's to open presents and then say goodbye to the parents, since I was staying in Raleigh for the night.

They got me exactly what I asked for, a kids backpack from REI, but despite my measuring it out when I asked for it, it was still a bit smaller than I was expecting.

Once I lengthened the straps, it looked a lot less ridiculous and was what I wanted. And before that, it was just a lot of laughing, which was awesome.

It was a low-key day spent with the family and exactly what I love. A great start to 29. Which I'm still not really ok with that.

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

The weekend after Christmas I spent the day in Chapel Hill! For the first time in a year. I still can't believe I made it that long. It definitely made being there all the more sweeter, but, I don't think it's necessary to be gone so long to make it sweet.

Mom and I started out with brunch at Top of the Hill. I spent so many nights there my senior year drinking with my friends, that it's still kind of weird to be there, during the day, eating food, with my mom. From there we went into a few of the stores on Franklin and all I bought were socks. Seriously. I have everything else apparently.

From there Mom went to do a little shopping at the mall while I took my time wandering around campus. I just love it so much.

I don't always have a lot of time to see everything I want to, but this
time I did. I got to visit some places I haven't seen in awhile, like
the Arboretum and War Memorial.

I took some time to just look up at the buildings, as "500 Days of Summer" taught me, and bask in the loveliness that is UNC.

I also made it to the Bell Tower, where there are plaques for the senior classes and their senior campaigns for raising money. (Starting with the class of 2007, boo.) It was very cold but I couldn't resist trying on the Tar Heel.

I met mom back on Franklin and we got cupcakes and hot drinks from Sugarland before heading to A Southern Season. I miss it already but I'll be back.

Monday, February 04, 2013

I can't say it's been a smooth, stress-free 5 years. Because it hasn't.
(And I probably would've been miserably bored had it been.) But I am thankful every day that I found the job posting on Craig's
List and got this job. It tests my intelligence and patience every day but I love the challenge. This job is so much more than a job, which is what I've always wanted, and has led to great memories, experiences, and friendships.

In 5 years I have learned and grown so much, become so much more
confident and capable, that I probably wouldn't recognize the old me.